Iran social media strategy pivots to information war amid US-Israel attack | US-Israel war on Iran
Iran has radically overhauled its social media strategy in an all-out information war launched by the country’s Islamist rulers in response to military offensives by the United States and Israel.
Cyber experts say Iran’s foreign influence operations have gone into overdrive as part of an “asymmetric” campaign designed to complement military retaliation and intensify moral pressure on the United States and Israel to reduce their war efforts.
This meant that platforms such as X, Instagram and Bluesky were flooded with targeted posts calculated to exploit the war’s popularity in the US, including from supporters of Donald Trump.
Previous multi-faceted communications aimed at encouraging support for causes such as Scottish independence and Irish unification were cast aside in favor of a single-topic message that included AI-generated videos and memes mocking Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some images created by artificial intelligence to have fake Successful attacks on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, alleged bomb damage to buildings in Tel Aviv, and It is claimed that Israeli soldiers cried out of fear Because of Iranian retaliation.
Iran campaign was effective enough Complaints from TrumpHe accused Iran of using artificial intelligence as a “weapon of disinformation.”
A violent attack came The regime imposed an almost complete internet blackout A threat has been made to impose penalties on anyone who uses satellite internet connections such as Starlink in Iran.
Government agents have also reportedly tried to intimidate Iranians living abroad into not posting online messages against the regime or in favor of the US-Israeli war effort. Iranians living abroad reported receiving phone calls or online warnings that their citizenship would be revoked or family members in Iran would be harmed if they did not stop posting.
Analysts believe cyber efforts have become a central component of the regime’s survival strategy, along with military retaliation against U.S. and allied targets and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“This is absolutely asymmetric warfare,” said director Darren Linvill. Clemson University’s Center for Media Forensics He lives in South Carolina and is the author of a study on Iran’s tactics.
“The use of artificial intelligence is impressive and I don’t think anyone has seen it quite like this before.
“Iran is using every advantage it has. They have been preparing for this conflict for nearly 50 years, and this was part of their preparation. They understand the media ecosystem.”
Clemson study It emerged that Iran’s social media efforts, which had previously been aimed at exploiting political disagreements in the UK and US, were immediately redirected following the start of American-Israeli military strikes on February 28.
Superficially authentic troll accounts have so far only focused on Scottish or Irish politics or criticized Keir Starmer or the Royal family, instead condemning the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the deadly attack on a school in Minab, Iran, that left 175 people dead, mostly schoolgirls.
Troll accounts, as well as Latino identities in the US who posted against Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, have since been suspended. They replaced them Content placed by Iranian proxies and embassiesExperts say it was sometimes so effective that it was rebroadcast repeatedly, adding to widespread concerns about an already unpopular war.
“All of their normal operations were completely disrupted to focus on the fight,” Linvill said. “They are focused on the existential threat of continued war with Israel and the United States.
“There were accounts managed by IRGC” [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] One day pretending to be Scottish and Irish and talking about Scottish and Irish politics, the next day focusing solely on the war in Iran and spouting shameless Iranian propaganda.
“Using the same assets to suddenly talk about how the religious leader is a martyr seems a bit unrealistic for a voice that is assumed to be a 20-year-old girl from County Cork.”
A key part of the goal appears to be to capitalize on criticism of the war among those increasingly disenchanted with Trump’s Maga (make America great again) allies.
Press TV, the English satellite channel of Iranian state television, Released four clips from Tucker Carlson’s interview with Joe KentTrump, who resigned this week as the Trump administration’s anti-terrorism advisor, made this statement on his social media account within an hour on Thursday.
Iranian propaganda operators would seize on Kent’s claim, made in his resignation letter and in his interview with Carlson, that Israel had brought the United States into the war. Alex GoldenbergExpert in online threats and influence campaigns.
“A fundamental part of the Iranian information model is identifying fault lines in American political debates and reinforcing them,” he said. “For years, this meant platforming marginal movements on the left with apparent sympathy for hostile regimes. What matters now is that Iranian state media has found a new and growing source of content on the right, where rhetoric questioning Israel’s influence on American foreign policy is trafficking in overt antisemitism.”
“Iran doesn’t need to create this content. It just presents itself.”
